Though the Lords have learned to yield when the nation
reiterates its determined demand for a law, they were spared on
this occasion. Mr. Gladstone did not renew the bill. In March,
1894, he withdrew forever from public life, which he had adorned
so long and so conspicuously, his last words in Parliament taking
the form of an impressive warning against the assertion of
authority by the Upper House. In his last interview with the
leader of the Irish Home Rulers he assured them of his belief in
the ultimate triumph of their cause--a cause whose success was
mentioned in his prayers.
The Queen offered her aged public servant an earldom on his
retirement, but his was not an ambition to be pleased with such
empty rewards. In his beautiful castle of Hawarden, surrounded by
his books and his family, he spent the years which remained to
him in a graceful old age. To the last his mind remained alert
and active. He busied himself with the classical and theological
studies which had been the delight of his young manhood, and the
relaxation of his active years. His translations, his
controversial pamphlets, his letters on public questions, showed
the refinement and vigor of his remarkable intellect. When he
died the English-speaking world paid a universal tribute of
respect to his memory.
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